Cultural Impact on Requirements Engineering Activities: Bangladeshi Practitioners' View

Chowdhury Shahriar Muzammel, Maria Spichkova, James Harland

Abstract: Requirements Engineering (RE) is one of the most interaction-intensive phases of software development. This means that RE activities might be especially impacted by stakeholders' national culture. Software development projects increasingly have a very diverse range of stakeholders. To future-proof RE activities, we need to help RE practitioners avoid misunderstandings and conflicts that might arise from not understanding potential Cultural Influences (CIs). Moreover, an awareness of CIs supports diversity and inclusion in the IT profession. Bangladesh has a growing IT sector with some unique socio-cultural characteristics, and has been largely overlooked in this research field. In this study, we aim to investigate how the RE process is adopted in the context of Bangladeshi culture and what cultural influences impact overall RE activities.